Wilsons Sandbox

liam2maps@... wrote:

>Hello there. I am eager to start riding however I am confused to >which bike would best suit me. I hear Kawasaki's have a good >reputation. What I look for in a bike is generally its handling and >not so much its speed. A good acceleration is a good idea as well. A >bike that has been mentioned is the Kawasaki e5. >

Whichever bike an E5 is, it's not sold in the US market so I couldn't say anything about it. Compared to a car, any bike has good acceleration. Smaller, low powered bikes are generally easier to learn on, and easier to pick up when dropped. But they are rarely comfortable for long rides, and sometimes have trouble keeping up with highway traffic. The KLR is low powered (perhaps I should say it delivers sufficient power in a very friendly, controllable manner), but is still large enough to make highway riding manageable. The KLR will just about do 100mph but it's an extremely uncomfortable experience. 65-70mph can be maintained all day with good fuel economy. If you are physically large enough to feel comfortable on a KLR, it's a good learner bike. If you are a bit smaller (like me, 5'7") you will feel uncomfortable with only your toes on the ground. The KLR can be lowered 2" cheaply and fairly easily. The street handling is superb at moderate speeds. Adding a few parts (about $75 USD) can make a KLR basically immune to tip-overs and low-speed drops (not cosmetically though, just mechanically). Drop the bike, pick it up, ride home. Also, there is a very large aftermarket for the KLR. As delivered the bike is an extremely competent street bike that can be ridden on dirt roads, and mild trails. You can change it into a (heavy) trail bike, or a touring bike, or a full-street bike. I have mine set up for trail riding, and I still use it for grocery shopping and commuting. Devon

You might wish to consider acquiring a copy of the book "The Idiot's Guide to Motorcycling, 2nd Edition". This book is an excellent guide to what every new motorcyclist needs to know. The book contains a number of recommendations on good first motorcycles for first-time motorcyclists. The KLR650 is listed as one of the few bikes that is both a "best buy" and a "best first bike". It is versatile enough to do everything from freeway running to commuting to sport riding in the twisties to riding Jeep trails. The after-market support for the KLR650 allows you to tune the inexpensive KLR650 for specific tasks. That said, I bought my KLR650 as my first and thus far only motorcycle. This list, its members, and the huge amount of information available on it were significant factors influencing my decision to get a KLR650. I took the MSF class to learn how to ride and how to ride safely. -- Marc, KLR650 A12

> Date: Wed, 18 Feb 2004 12:03:26 -0000 > From: "liam2maps" > Subject: Kawasaki bikes for novice riders > > Hello there. I am eager to start riding however I am confused to > which bike would best suit me. I hear Kawasaki's have a good > reputation. What I look for in a bike is generally its handling and > not so much its speed. A good acceleration is a good idea as well. A > bike that has been mentioned is the Kawasaki e5. I would like to > gather as much information before making such a purchase. Please

take

> to heart that I am a beginner.

I don't see how you could go wrong with the KLR650. The KLR is my first street bike and I couldn't be happier with it. I grew up with dirt bikes so the height doesn't bother me,(5'8") as mentioned It can be lowered. It has enough power to scoot around traffic just fine. Any more power would just get me into big trouble Take your riding course first, who knows you may hate riding, doubtful, but who knows. You are asking the right questions though , some people in my MSF class had already purchased liter class sportbikes before ever riding one. They had the bikes waiting at the dealership to be picked up after passing the class. One person really regretted buying a brand new HD of some sort before the class, she was talking of selling it and getting something way smaller. Like the Nighthawk 250s we used. Karl A14

>> Date: Wed, 18 Feb 2004 12:03:26 -0000 >> From: "liam2maps" >> Subject: Kawasaki bikes for novice riders >> >> Hello there. I am eager to start riding however I am confused to >> which bike would best suit me. I hear Kawasaki's have a good >> reputation. What I look for in a bike is generally its handling and >> not so much its speed. A good acceleration is a good idea as well. A > >> bike that has been mentioned is the Kawasaki e5. I would like to >> gather as much information before making such a purchase. Please > take >> to heart that I am a beginner. > > > > List sponsored by Dual Sport News at www.dualsportnews.com. List FAQ courtesy > of Chris Krok at: www.bigcee.com/klr650faq.html > Unsubscribe by sending a blank message to: > DSN_klr650-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com . > > > Yahoo! Groups Links > > > > >

On Wed, Feb 18, 2004 at 09:46:51PM -0500, kdxkawboy@... wrote:

> leaving a modest profit unless F1 is guilty of padding costs like in $200 hammers, > in which case I don't think I'd want to do business with them. > > Pat

Obviously you haven't worked in purchasing in the .gov or in selling to the .gov. There is a reason for the $200 toilet seat or $100 hammer. It is to simply pay for the overhead involved for a supplier to simply sell them what they are requesting. When you get a PO, they give you a quantity and a MIL spec number. The PA rarely if ever knows what the item actually is, if they do know it's a hammer, they won't know specifically what sort of hammer. Let's make the scenario even more specific, let's say it's for a 'bolt'. The reason here is that not only are there a million combinations of what a 'bolt' could be, but it could very well be a life critical application, say in the wing of an airframe. You can't just guess, you really have to supply the exact item they need. Now as a vendor, you have to find out what that MIL spec number is, keeping in mind I was in the 'biz' in the 80's before the dawn of cheap computing. This meant that you needed a subscription to the GSA's complete catalog. At the time I think it was $30k-$50k something like that and would literally fill about a thousand sq ft. of space to store. That was out of the question for most vendors. First step, see if some other vendor had a MIL spec cross-reference that they published and pray it was on their listing and that it was truly a standard item you could falsify the spec stickers for and provide at reasonable cost. This would be a $.05 grade 5 plain old bolt, that at this point you could sell for $.08 to make up the time you spent researching it. If this isn't the case, now you have to pay a MIL spec cross reference service to 'research' the item $35 for each item number or a five figure annual subscription fee. To find out it is a grade 5 plain steel hex head cap screw, it just cost you $35. Of course you have to pass that on in the cost. If the PO is for a single bolt, it is now $35 + cost of bolt + profit margin (taking into consideration the phone bill and time of the person that tracked it down). Even more interesting is if you find out that the MIL spec number is to a sole-source provider machinist with yet another generic description so you have to contact that company and order a sample to see what it actually is. I $hit you not, I had to track down a number that brought me to a machine shop in OK City area that produced the part. I ordered the part. $35 to look it up, time spent before I resorted to that, $18 for one of the item cost from the machinist, shipping charges to get it to me. I get the part, it's a grade 5 plain steel hex head cap screw. Of course I had to have a local guy check it out to be sure it was just that. Somehow through politics this guy in OK was awarded a contract to basically resell a bulk bolt at $18/each. I forget the quantity of the order for that one, but there was a good couple hundred dollars in overhead by the time we actually shipped, that had to be made up to break even. Don't believe what the media sells you as the truth. The same politician that 'uncovered the widespread corruption of the $200 bolt', is the same guy that owns an interest in that $18/bolt machine shop scam. The whole GSA/MIL spec setup was designed surreptitiously to allow for corruption. One last tid-bit, in order to do business with the .gov we had to be able to float $8M in credit that took 18mos on avg to be received. We were a relatively small business, the owner would take additional mortgages out on his house waiting on the .gov payouts so that our suppliers would continue our credit line as a reseller. -- ___ ______ _____ __ ________ ___ / _ |< < / == / ___/__ / /_ /_ __/ / __ ____ _ ___ /__ \ / __ |/ // / ****/ (_ / _ \/ __/ / / / _ \/ // / ' \/ _ \ /__/ /_/ |_/_//_/ == \___/\___/\__/ /_/ /_//_/\_,_/_/_/_/ .__/ (_) 8600 miles*Russel Lines*Supertrapp Race* /_/ http://www.kingsqueak.org/klr650/